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PHILADELPHIA – MAY 16, 2024 – The NBA announced today that this year’s NBA Most Improved Player award recipient and first-time NBA All-Star Tyrese Maxey has been awarded the Joe Dumars Trophy as the winner of the 2023-24 NBA Sportsmanship Award. Maxey becomes the second player in franchise history to receive the honor, joining Eric Snow in 1999-00.

The annual award is designed to honor a player who best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court. Each NBA team nominated one of its players for the NBA Sportsmanship Award. From the list of 30 team nominees, a panel of league executives selected one finalist from each of the NBA’s six divisions, and current NBA players selected the winner.

Maxey concluded his fourth NBA campaign in 2023-24 as a top-11 scorer in the league, averaging career highs in points (25.9), assists (6.2), and steals (1.0). He was selected as a first-time NBA All-Star on Feb. 1 and later became the second player in franchise history to be named the league’s Most Improved Player (Dana Barros in 1994-95).

Maxey averaged just 1.7 turnovers this season, joining Dallas’ Kyrie Irving (also 2023-24) as the only two players in league history to average at least 25.0 points and 5.0 assists with fewer than 2.0 turnovers for a full campaign.

The NBA Sportsmanship Award trophy is named in honor of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Joe Dumars, a six-time NBA All-Star and two-time NBA champion. Dumars played 14 NBA seasons and won the inaugural Sportsmanship Award in the 1995-96 season.

Does this count as a trophy for the Sixers? They can’t get past the second round but at least Tyrese was a really nice guy out there.

Sadly, for him to take the next step, we need the opposite of this. No more ethical behavior, no more fair play, no more integrity. He’ll need to learn how to get around a screen and then wait for someone to bumble into him, aka “the Jalen Brunson.” Or he’ll need to flop on the defensive end to get a few more charge whistles in his favor. Sportsmanship is nice, but gamesmanship wins trophies.

This is cool though: